Asian Buffet — Restaurant in Meridian Charter Township

My family are regulars at this restaurant. We visit often and the owner knows this. So when we visited and brought our extended family for a party after my niece's baptism, we were shocked at the way we were treated. First off, our waitress was quite grumpy and had no qualms with showing it. She brought by an armful of cokes and plopped them down on a table and almost shouted "who ordered the coke?!" Now I know that we had a big group (32) but there are nicer ways to do that than pushing aside a customer who is eating and shouting at everyone else. A few minutes later, someone returned from the bathroom and asked about their coke and and she snapped at them for not responding earlier. The service was inconsistent. One time, she literally pulled the plate as someone was taking their last bite. Sometimes, plates piled up, but that wasn't the waitress's fault - the management should have had another person helping her. The food was average - typical buffet food, same as every other time. The truly horrendous part was when she brought the bill. She tried to charge us for 36 people, and then accused us of lying to her and said that people left and we weren't counting them. This was not true. We told her that one dad took his 3 year old outside because the 3 year old was acting up, but we had already included him in out count. She counted no less than four times before she admitted she was wrong. Also, she charged us for extra pops. We didn't argue this with her because the last charge was what really blew my mind. It's a normal practice to charge gratuity for big groups, and we know and wouldn't have been surprised by this. However, they threw a thirty six dollar charge in and didn't list it as gratuity but as another charge. Just in the middle of the per persons and the drinks. There was no verbal or written notice of this charge and that was the reason we were upset about it. It was a shady practice and to just add it to the itemized list makes it seem like we needed to tip again. It wasn't until I asked about it that they said it was gratuity. When I asked the owner about it, she first blamed it on the waitress, and then got mad at us about it. She told us to go talk to the manager, but when we did, she stood in the back an muttered in a different language the entire time. You can only imagine as I did what she was saying. I explained to the manager that we weren't opposed to paying a tip. Like I said, we come here all the time l. We have never not left a good tip. He just blew it off and said that it was standard practice. I'm sorry, when did it become standard to be deceitful? Oh did I mention when I called and ask if big groups got a discount, I was told 5%, but when I asked about it at the restaurant, they said no. I get it if you can't give a discount, but if you say you're going to do something, you should do it. The manager than said well you ate you have to pay. I paid it just to be done with it but I do not agree with the way they handled things. To lie to, deceive, and then argue with a customer is not good business, especially when it is a returning loyal customer. I'm sure we will be back, but only because my mom loves those little crawfish. But it will not be for a...

Update 3/4/23: More or less the same as the previous experience (good food, good atmosphere, no wait), but a comment needs to be made about how to bathrooms aren't young child (or vertically-challenged adult) friendly. They need to either place stools by the sinks or install soap dispensers closer to the end of the sink.

Update 12/19/22: We went back last night as a whole family. The rice for the sushi was better, so either they noticed my previous review or I originally had it on a particular bad night. Regardless, the sushi rice tasted more like sushi rice. Not great sushi rice, just better sushi rice. The fixings for the sushi was still middling. Not enough to keep me from eating it.

We went on a Sunday night. There's an upcharge on weekends, raising the price to $14.75 for adults. I thought this might also mean the offerings would be different, too, like at other buffets. If there were any changes to dishes, it would have only been a couple. I think the weekend premium is due to expectations of high demand, not for premium items. When we went, it was nearly 7pm. Not a high traffick time for the restaurant. We must have missed the rush, and we were grateful for that.

It's still a good experience for an overall good price. And after a couple visits in the span of a month, it's still a place the whole family can agree on without hesitation.

Oh, and the fortune cookies are no longer NFTs. They're ads for Duolingo, which I'm generally fine with. Just, as a user of Duolingo, it feels like that bird is following me. He even jokes about it on some of the fortunes.

It had been a while since our last visit to the buffet. My kids usually give us a hard time about Chinese food, but there were no complaints here. They were actually willing to try new things, and they loved all of it. I appreciate the place on that level.

The food is good, by buffet standards. There was more than one dish that I enjoyed eating. However, I do have to criticize the sushi. I do appreciate their offering sushi, but sushi requires that you get the rice right. They didn't get it. It was dry and bitter. I still ate several pieces because I wanted sushi, but it could have been better.

I was also put off by the fortune cookies promoting NFTs. I don't think that's their fault. Another local Chinese restaurant had cookies promoting a certain cryptocurrency that recently went under. So I think our local Chinese restaurants need to look into these distributors and get back to giving us cookies that have lucky numbers instead of scams.

But the food and service are very good. We'll definitely be back sometime, especially with the very generous...

If only I could give this place zero stars, I would. I am appalled by the individuals who rated this disgusting place more than one star. They must've rated the wrong joint because this place is awful. Let me set the scene for you. My mother and I were looking forward to lunch here and decided to go right at open. They opened at 11:00 and we were there at 11:01. We weren't greeted and were ushered to a table. We both asked for waters and went to the buffet to begin. We both grabbed several different chickens and a variety of food. Upon trying my first bite of lo mein, I was met with cold noodles. I then tried some of the orange chicken and the temperature was the same. Not only that, but there was so much nasty breading on the chicken that there was no chicken. To make sure it wasn't just me, I didn't say anything to my mother, but she had noticed that her food was cold as well. For a place that had just opened literally minutes prior, the food should have been hot, warm at the minimum. We were so disgusted by the cold food that when the waitress came back to ask if I needed another water, we told her we wanted the bill. She proceeded to ask if everything was okay, in which my mother replied "no, the food was cold". The waitress apologized and said she grabbed the manager as we were simply just trying to leave from the establishment. The manager caught us at the counter and said something in a different language and said something along the lines of "it wasn't hot because it was still the morning". That's nothing but an excuse. Let me repeat myself, they opened at 11:00 and we were there at 11:01 and the food was cold because it was the morning? You just opened your food should be "fresh" whatever you deem that to be, but you just answered any question I had about the food being "fresh". I then proceed to pay because of course the meal was awful, but they will not comp the meal. I sign the receipt and give back to the worker and she mumbled something under her breath as we left. This meal was awful and not to mention my mother and I had stomach cramps for the rest of the day. The cherry on the cake was also the manager yelling at her workers in front of everyone. Straight up class. This place is a health hazard and should be shut down. If you prefer to pay over 32 dollars to eat raw, battery, and cold food, then this is definitely your place to eat. If you are a normal human being and you've read this review please take it as a warning sign to...